


The Tape

by svevijah



Series: Future Starts Slow. [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Post-Endgame, cooper is stressed out, hawk fam vs iron fam, morgan loves her dad's garage, nat and tony's spirits live in lila and harley whenever they have a banter, nathaniel loves popsicles, paintball gone wrong, random discover makes local kids emotional
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 21:45:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18646699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svevijah/pseuds/svevijah
Summary: “Hey kids, it’s Tony.” He began with a wide smile. “Some of you sadly are not with us anymore… but we’re working on getting them back! For the ones who are still here… I’m glad you’re ok, as much as you can be in times like these.”





	The Tape

**Author's Note:**

> i've written pages and pages of sad stuff™ lately, but i felt the need to post something a little bit more... light hearted... although i wrote the last piece listening to "happier", so i had my fair share of tears, lol. canon avengers' kids/siblings are 8 apparently, but i'm sure they'd be thrilled to add groot in their gang! hope you like it <3

“Alright everybody!” Cooper’s voice broke in the silence as he proceeded to load his paintball gun. “Quick recap: porch is dead zone. Left side of the sunroom is the Hawk base, while the right side is the Iron base. When Pepper whistles we run on opposites sides. Perimeter is undefined, but lake territory is a restricted area per orders of Iron mom.”

As Cooper finished his quick debrief, Morgan burst out in giggles, her red gun precariously held between her chest and arm. Nathaniel followed in trail of giggles as well, which made Cooper roll his eyes in the most dramatic way.

“One last thing.” He declared solemnly. Cassie sighed, waving her hand in the hair as if to tell him to keep it short. “Do you all remember who are your teammates?”

“Yes sir.” Shuri brushed off, rushing Peter and Morgan to their side of the sunroom.

“Wait!” Peter chimed in, suddenly stopping and causing Shuri to bump into his back. “Where’s Lila?”

Before one of the others could answer, one of Lila’s arrows flew between them, fixing itself in the ground after its head exploded with purple confetti. As the kids looked up to the roof, Lila saluted them. “Hello gents, I’m here to take a win.” She declared dramatically before jumping on the ground.

“Is it too late to change team?”

“Harley!”

“She’s got a wrist bow and a rifle, we’ve already lost!”

“Guys!” Cooper yelled and everybody fell silent. Lila fixed her sunglasses, unfazed. “Lila take off the wrist bow, we gotta be even.”

“Whatever.” She remarked taking the weapon off and throwing it on the swing in the porch. As everybody went in the sunroom to take positions, Pepper followed along, reminding them to be careful. Once everything was settled, she whistled and the two teams split in the woods circling the Stark farmhouse.

____________________

“Next time we should use our signature weapons, so that Lila will cry tears of surrender.”

“That’s unnecessary mean.” Shuri replied to Harley before running in a different direction than her team.

“We splitting?” Peter asked in a confused tone, Morgan mirroring his expression although not fully understanding what was wrong with it.

“Yeah, we’ll cover more space this way!” Shuri yelled back, swiftly avoiding coloured bullets from hitting her. Peter and Harley shared a knowingly look, and before any of them could say anything Peter flew off in the trees, leaving Harley and Morgan standing with their guns ready to shoot.

“Seems like we’re on our own kid.”

Morgan shrugged her shoulders and kept walking.

____________________

“What the hell was that stunt you pulled on the roof?” Cooper began, half yelling and half whispering. Gun positioned the way aunt Nat taught him years before, Lila looked at him and thought he was such a waste of potential.

“Look, it’s go big or go home.” She remarked confidently. “It’s always been like this with _us_.”

“Yeah well, you could stop for a second and think it’s not just us anymore.”

“I honestly feel so out of place right now.” Cassie let out awkwardly, truly wishing to be wherever else that didn’t involve fights between siblings.

“Alright. Nate and I will go left. You and Cassie right. Keep your sight sharp.” Lila declared taking Nathaniel’s hand. Cooper and Cassandra looked at each other, confused more than ever, and for a moment Cooper wondered what was up with his sister.

____________________

“Morgoona?” Harley called out, but no voice answered.

The first three times, Harley genuinely thought that Morgan was pulling one of her pranks on him – make him worry for a couple of minutes only to reappear suddenly at his back to scare him. The fourth time, panic started to creep in his mind. Sure, the farmhouse had a fence and Morgan was way too small to climb it, but then again, she could have lost her way to the house, or worse – gotten hurt.

“Morgan, this is not funny anymore!”

When he almost more than certain that Pepper would have kicked his ass, Harley heard somebody walk towards him, and his heart suddenly filled with relief.

“Oh. It’s just _you_.”

Lila – and Nathaniel clumsily clutched at her leg, appeared behind a tree. Hearing his statement, the brunette took her sunglasses off and narrowed her eyes.

“Excuse you?” she remarked sarcastically. “Why are you moping under the tree though? Where’s your team?”

Harley shrugged lightly his head rested on the tree trunk. “I lost Morgan.”

Lila’s brows lined in a frown. Morgan was out of the game and that was his reaction? A little bit excessive perhaps? “You let her come back to the porch alone?”

Harley cocked a brow in confusion. “What? No – I mean I can’t find her.”

Looking at her little brother and the Harley, Lila’s arms raised to form a T. looking down at Nathaniel again, she urged him to cover his ears. Once Nathaniel couldn’t listen, she gave him a smile that turned into the angriest face on earth once she locked her gaze into Harley’s. “What the fuck? How can you fucking loose a child? Oh God we’re screwed.”

“It’s my fault…” Harley began saying, but Lila stopped him before he could go any further.

“Dude, that’s not about _you_. Let’s take Nate to the porch and then we’ll look for Morgan.” She said confidently, then started walking in the direction of the farmhouse.

____________________

“Is it just me or like, nobody is playing?” Shuri asked Peter after they had reunited and walked aimlessly for almost two hours.

Peter shrugged and he checked around him for any sign of people moving around them, but even his spider sense would find nothing. “It’s just… us?”

“You know what? Let’s just go to the porch.” Shuri finally declared, definitely annoyed by the lack of action that the premise of the game offered back in the morning when they had decided to play.

When they arrived at the farmhouse, Nathaniel Barton was eating a popsicle on the doorstep, his gear had been taken off although there were some leaves in his hair.

“Hey Nate!” Peter greeted him, and the kid waved with his free hand. “Where’s everybody?”

Nathaniel squinted his eyes at Peter, then turned to Shuri. “Harley lost Morgan.” He said in a whisper, then got up and entered in the house to give Pepper the popsicle stick.

Peter and Shuri shared a worried look, unsure on what to do.

____________________

Cooper and Cassie walked miles slowly and ready to shoot, only to realize that nobody was playing, or otherwise one of them would have already been dead. Walking by the lake, Cooper stopped and watched as the sun shone on the water.

“It’s so weird.”

Cassie raised a brow and looked in the same direction. “What?”

“Everything’s so different now.” He whispered. “I mean from the first time we came here.”

Cassandra nodded lightly, letting out a soft sigh. The very first time all of them set foot on those shores, it was for Tony’s funeral – still an open wound, despite months passed and lives kept going on.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Cooper asked, and Cassie nodded. “I’m scared.” He declared solemnly.

“Of what?”

“Everything. That this peace won’t last forever. That Lila will never move on from aunt Nat’s dead. That mom will keep knocking at her bedroom and then realize nobody will open, and burst into tears. That dad will be forever haunted by whatever happened in the five years we were gone. That I’ll be to college in a year and half and I’ll leave them to a mess.”

As Cooper went on with his trail of thoughts, Cassie put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic smile. “Coop, it’s ok. Really. Everybody will find their wa–“

“And that’s why you should put her in a baby leash.” Lila’s voice chimed in catching Cassandra’s attention.

“She’s a baby, not a dog!” Harley’s voice replied, and Cooper and Cassie couldn’t help but giggle in confusion at the exchange.

“Yeah, my mom used to say that too.”

“Guys?” Cassie yelled in their direction. As Harley and Lila came out of the woods, their eyes narrowed at the sight of the sun, and Lila decided it was time to put her sunglasses on again.

“Are we on pause or something?”

“Sort of.” Harley declared sharing an expressively look with Lila, to which she replied by shaking her head.

“Harley lost Morgan.” Lila finally declared dryly.

“You did what?!”

____________________

“Do you think that maybe Nate was just messing with us?” Peter asked sitting on the steps, worry in his eyes and fear for what Pepper might have done to them if it was true.

“I think that the others have not returned yet, maybe they found her already.” Shuri replied, trying to sound as logical as possible.

“Should we tell it to Mrs. Stark?”

“ _You_ tell her.”

Peter pouted lightly, but didn’t move to get in the house. “You know what?” he said getting up. “Let’s walk around the house. Maybe she came back but decided to hide in her tent or something.”

“Hey!” Lila’s voice pierced the silence as they were walking around the corner.

“Morgan is lost!” Shuri yelled in a whisper.

“Yeah I know, we’ve been looking for her in the woods, she’s not there.”

“Maybe she’s in her tent. We were going to check out.” Peter explained.

“Alright then.” Lila said with a nod. “Cooper and Cassie check in the house, Harley and I will check in the garage.”

“Why do we have to go there?”

“Because you know how to enter in it, dumbass.”

____________________

“Can you believe the garage opens only if the scanner finds a match with the fingerprints that Tony listed here?” Harley exclaimed pushing his thumb on the screen.

“I guessed something like that, yeah.”

The garage door opened, and Lila’s mouth opened wide at how long it seemed to extend. “That’s way different than dad’s barn.”

As they entered, Harley began looking around, his trembling hands toughing Tony’s dusted tools and notes and realizing all over again he really was not there anymore. Some steps ahead, hidden in a corner among tall boxes, Morgan was sitting cross legged, fumbling among video tapes.

“Lila, I found her!” Harley shouted in relief. “Call the others too.”

____________________

“So, what’s this stuff again?” Cassie asked curiously.

“These tapes are supposed to be put into a machine that will make us see Tony’s holographic figure, or something like that.” Harley replied trying to connect all the wires.

“You mean like… when he died?” Shuri asked, and Harley gave her a weak nod.

“And there is a tape for us?” Peter continued.

“Guys!” Harley remarked in frustration. “There’s written _‘For the kids’_ on that one. _Kids_ could be anybody, but maybe it’s us!”

“Alright, then put it on.” Lila urged.

Harley put the tape in inside the machine, then picked up Morgan and sat on the couch next to the others. Seconds after, Tony’s figure appeared, sat on a spinning chair in his office. The kids sniffed softly, cuddling closer one to the other.

“Hey kids, it’s Tony.” He began with a wide smile. “Some of you sadly are not with us anymore… but we’re working on getting them back! For the ones who are still here… I’m glad you’re ok, as much as you can be in times like these.”

“Daddy!” Morgan chimed in, hands grasping in the air. Harley took one of them in his, giving her a small smile.

“I’ll be short, mostly because these are still prototypes that need to be improved, but promise me this. When everything will be fixed… don’t hold back on your dreams. The new world will need people as bright as you are, and not necessarily heroes! In fact… – Tony said, getting up from the chair and pointing somewhere in the air – whether you want to be the brightest engineer of your age, or an astrophysics, or a mechanic, or a chemical engineer or… you want to follow in your old men’s footsteps… embrace it. Embrace who you are, choose to be good and choose to do good.”

As a tear rolled down Tony’s cheek, he took a deep breath, looked down at something that looked like a pager, and then back to them. “There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people… So that when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could.”

Hearing that statement, Lila gasped, slightly jumping on her spot. Cooper, across the couch, looked at her and shook his head in disbelief. “Remember that whatever will happen, you’re part of the same family. The _Avenger family_. Now and forever. Count on each other, trust each other. You are the future. You are the progress. Good luck with your lives kids, wish you all the best.”

The tape stopped and as Tony’s figure vanished, silence filled the room.


End file.
